Sunday, May 13, 2012

2001 Fleer Platinum #428 Jimmy Rollins & Juan Pierre

One Sentence Summary:Jimmy Rollins led off the game with a home run and Cole Hamels pitched another solid game as the Phillies delivered a Mother's Day win, 3-2.

What It Means: It's against the Padres, but a series win is a series win. The Astros come to town for a quick two-game series starting tomorrow night.

What Went Right: Rollins hit his 38th career lead-off home run and his first home run of the season to get things started. Brian Schneider's RBI-single in the second made it 2-0 Phillies. Schneider led off the fifth with a double and scored what proved to be the winning run on Juan Pierre's two-out double. Pierre's two hits raised his season average to .351.

Hamels struggled with his control early, but rebounded nicely. He allowed a run on five hits in his seven innings of work while striking out five on the way to his fifth win. Jonathan Papelbon pitched a perfect ninth to earn his 10th save.

Featured Card: I have two Pierre cards in my Phillies baseball card binders from his pre-Phillies days. I already featured one of those cards back in January, and the other card is featured here. Pierre, who was signed to a minor league contract and entered camp in the spring as a non-roster invitee, has been a huge pick-up for the Phils so far this year. He's become the team's regular left fielder, earning more playing time over the slumping John Mayberry, Jr.

Hopefully some of Pierre's hot hitting rubs off on Rollins. Despite his big home run today, Rollins is still only hitting .230 so far this season.